Out With the New, In With the Old
by ficlit78
Summary: Post Soul of Fire.  Eric comes to Sookie after the seige at Moon Goddess.  As he damn well should have in the show.  Idjit...


**A/N**: I swear to God, more _Pretty Kitty_ is coming, so don't despair at seeing this new story. It's only a one-shot, so it's already done and won't eat into any more PK time. It's just that...well Jesus...if you're like me, than the ending of ep 11, _Soul of Fire_, had you crying into your corn flakes. I mean, Eric all hot and angry and revenge-y, then...What? A neutered, longing stare across the Moon Goddess entryway? Dude, lame. And don't even get me started about the finale's breakup scene. WTF? I didn't realize that the best way to spare everyone's feelings is to let EVERYONE walk away with a broken heart. Way to burn the village to save it, Sookie. I own nothing but a brain fulla naaaaaasty.

P.S. Dedicated to Schnerbles. Girl gets loud when I don't feed her.

**Out With the New, In With the Old**

She asked Jason to drive her home.

She really wasn't sure what else to do. So much had happened, so many people were standing around, wide-eyed and trying to make sense of it all, and yet, what was supposed to happen now? Were they all - human, witch and vampire - supposed to retire to a bar and have a shared-trauma after party? Rehash the evening's crazy over beers and Tru Bloods? Maybe have an off-color laugh or two? "_Hey, how about that sunshine wall? Hew-dog_!" or "_Way to channel that demon mojo! Man, we owe you a solid_!"

Guh. And yet, they were all still milling around, unsure of where to go, feeling skittish about breaking away from the group. Leave it to a prolonged witch attack to make intelligent folks turn into a zebra herd.

Sookie wasn't sure about everyone else, but right now, she barely even look them in the eye. Especially two pairs in particular. They flickered at her furtively as their owners separated themselves from the rest of the group, muttering in low, vampiric tones.

She didn't have long to feel uncomfortable about it. Jesus packed up Lafayette and Tara into his car, giving a mournful wave goodbye before dragging his loved ones off to La's trailer. Given his friendship with Marnie and his tender soul, he was off to tend Tara's wounds, console La, and feel responsible in private.

Holly sought Sookie out, but only just to squeeze her hand and make sure she hadn't been hurt.

"Did her fire actually burn you?" she asked quietly, turning her body into Sookie, shielding her answer from everyone else.

Sookie plastered a smile on her face and shook her head. "It only hurt for a second. I'm fine. Honest."

Mercifully, Holly was one of those people who didn't press. She watched Sookie carefully, accepting her answer, knowing that if she was lying, it was her prerogative to do so, and nodded without challenge.

"Guess I'll see you at work, then." And then she was gone, jingling her keys, running home to hug her kids extra tight.

Jason came to her next, rubbing her shoulders in that ham-fisted way that guys do when they're trying to make a girl feel better.

"Y'alright, Sook?"

She nodded again. Smiled again. "Sure. 'm just tired is all. You?"

He nodded as well, his head swinging wider with his increased disbelief. "Yeah, 'spose so. Jesus fuckin' Christ. That was one helluva show outside. Fireballs and bazookas and all kinds of shit. Makes me wonder if there's even a point to bein' a deputy in this town, 'f all I'm gonna do is stand there like an armless asshole and let it happen."

Sookie's face pinched in distaste. She was too exhausted to think about fireballs and bazookas and Jason's colorful descriptions.

The hackles on the back of her neck rose. Two blue, intense eyes were on her again. She could feel them without turning around and seeing the tall vampire staring at her. Or was it the shorter one? God, she was starting to second-guess which piercing gaze was on her anymore. Maybe it was both of them, talking at each other while looking at the one girl they've both seen naked. Both, who had agreed to kill themselves for the promise of her freedom without batting an eye.

She palmed her forehead. So not what she wanted to think about right now.

"Your truck out front?" she asked.

"Yeah. You wanna ride home?"

"Yeah. Now?"

"You got it."

She ducked her head, hiding under her brother's arm and avoiding everyone's eyes as she mumbled her goodbyes. She hesitated in the street, still freaked out by the barrier that supposedly disappeared an hour before. It had looked painful. Jason gripped her fingers at his elbow and wordlessly helped her across. The drive home was quiet. The hug at her door was subdued. Jason left her with a promise to call her the next day. Sookie gave that call a twenty-five percent chance of actually happening.

She walked through her dark house, heading up the stairs. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that the wardrobe/vampire cubby doors were wide open in the front room.

Eric must have forgotten to close them when they left to fight the coven in the cemetery.

That small, innocent oversight took a big, wet bite out of Sookie's heart. She stiffened her lower lip, refusing to let it tremble. Sweet Eric. If he'd come home with her after the fight, she would have smilingly wagged her finger at him, reminding him that his secret hidey-hole wouldn't stay secret for long if he left the door open all the time. He would have smiled back and apologized. That's how Sweet Eric was. Loving and deferential.

Sookie took the stairs two at a time. She didn't want to look at it. It brought images of him on his knees, looking at her sadly as he waited for Bill to execute him. For her.

She kicked her shoes off and stripped out of her sweater and jeans. She stood in just her camisole and thin cotton panties, squinting in the dark. Leaving her clothes in a pile by the bed, she crawled under her sheets, pulling them all the way up to her nose. It was still a bit too warm outside to be covered so completely. She didn't care. Right now, she felt exposed and lonely. Her blankets were her only sense of security now, thin as they were. She squeezed her eyes shut tight, willing away the anxiety and welcoming the exhaustion to take over.

Turning on her side, she curled into a ball and waited for sleep.

Sadly, sleep - that elusive bastard - left her to twist in the wind.

She lay wide awake, reliving every last excruciating second of the last twenty-four hours. Namely, Eric. She'd lost the sweetest beau she'd ever had and there was nothing she could do about it. Worse, it wasn't just that he was out of her life, but he'd been wiped from existence. The wide-eyed, innocent man who'd made love to her only two nights ago was gone forever. Like he'd died. Like he'd never been.

She sniffed softly.

She felt stupid mourning him. He wasn't dead. The man himself said he was no different. Just... _more_. But Sweet Eric had predicted that the knowing itself changed everything. And he'd been right. Old Eric - Current Eric - had barely said something sweet to her before he ruined it by saying something cold and sarcastic.

_"Well, they bet on the wrong horse. It's a shame." _

And with that, he'd dusted his hands of the lives of her friends while leaning away and avoiding her eyes. Her heart whispered that he'd said it out of hurt, that her admission about loving Bill as well as him had injured him, but still. Eric might have been a little heartbroken, but Sookie knew damn well that the welfare of her friends meant nothing to him. He would have let them die with indifference before falling in love with her, and out of sheer petulance now that he was angry with her.

She exhaled. It stuttered in her tight chest, making it sound like a forlorn whimper. Maybe she shouldn't have been honest with him. Maybe she should have just buried the fact that she still cared for Bill and concentrated on the complicated heap of emotions that she felt only for Eric. Or, at the very least, maybe she should have explained that while she loved Bill, she wasn't _in love_ with him anymore. He was a good man. Her first lover. There would always be a special place in her heart for him. She should have given Eric that much. If she hadn't been such an emotional basket case at the time, perhaps she would have. But Eric's awakening had spooked her. Only now was she beginning to realize that it had spooked him too, and instead of comforting him with the reassurance that she still wanted him, she'd gone and said something true, but cruel and inappropriate.

No wonder he hadn't run to her at Moon Goddess when the barrier dropped. She'd been kind of a bitch.

Her blankets did nothing to console her. They were only blankets, after all.

"Shit," she murmured into her pillow.

"Indeed."

Sookie jumped.

A cool presence slid into her bed and pressed into her back. Two arms snaked around her waist and shoulders. They were clad in black long sleeves, two long, elegant hands curling into her. His chin nudged above her head. The spoon of his body molded to hers with ease.

And just like that, Eric Northman was in her bed again.

Sookie's loneliness evaporated. Out of the complicated heap of emotions, joy leapt high in the air. It was so bright and relieved that it nearly knocked the wind out of her. Her hands automatically closed over his wrists, her thumbs rubbing over the raised veins. Her knees reversed until they locked over his, her bare calves slotting against his shins. He still had his pants on. She was in the shadow of his frame, the ridge line of his turned body being three inches taller than hers. More than ever, she felt small and dainty, especially when the thick material of his clothes slid against her warm skin.

"Eric." Her whisper sounded incredulous.

His arm under her neck tightened, pulling her flush against his chest. He said nothing. Sookie wasn't sure, maybe it was the strange connection that had surfaced after they'd shared their blood, but she could have sworn that she sensed a stubborn insecurity in him. He wasn't sure if he was welcome. He was trying not to give a damn either way.

Sookie sighed. She wasn't sure what to say. This man was not her lover. Yes, he was. No, he wasn't. She knew every inch of his body, every nick and scar he'd sustained in his human life, yet she didn't know how he attained them. He hadn't known, either. She knew he loved her. She no longer knew why. He'd been willing to give up everything and run away with her. He was now willing to die for her. Where once she'd lain in this bed with a blank sheet, she was now laying in it with an ancient book, filled with opinions and memories one-thousand years thick. The bed itself felt heavier with his increased presence.

She decided to let him break the silence. She was at too much of a loss.

At first, he lay quietly. Sookie wondered if he planned to speak at all. He seemed to be battling with the same issues, unsure of where to start.

Finally, he squeezed her to him gently and began with his immediate concern. "Are you injured?"

He felt her head as it shook slowly beneath his chin. "No."

"You were in pain earlier."

"She trapped me with fire. It hurt at the time, but went away when the spell broke." Sookie bit her lip and slid her tongue over it. "Is that why you're here? To see if I'm hurt?"

He thought a moment. "I'm here because I need to be."

Her independent spirit spoke before she could stop it. "No, you don't. I'm fine."

"Not for your needs. For mine. _I_ need to be here."

"Why?"

He tensed slightly against her. "Because twenty-four hours away from you was enough. I don't wish to repeat it."

Sookie smiled tightly, tears welling up in her eyes. After their last conversation on Bill's couch, she'd run out of his house, intent on saving her friends. But it had hurt her heart a little when Eric didn't come to his cubby for the day. She'd wondered where he'd spent it. If he'd been chained again. If he'd been in pain.

"Did you stay at Bill's today?"

"Yes."

"Under silver?"

"Yes."

It was too much. Sookie instantly went soft and seeking, her body melting backwards, purely feminine and comforting. She pictured him, all bloodied and weak, with no one to soothe him as he suffered for thirteen whole hours and no fairy hybrid girlfriend to offer him blood when the ordeal was over. She took his hand from her shoulder and placed a kiss inside his palm. "I'm sorry. Are you okay now?"

Eric, already tense, went completely rigid at the feel of her lips against his skin. They hadn't really touched since she'd broken his spell. The intimacy of her act startled them both. His thumb stroked her cheek.

"Yes, I'm well." A pause. "It hurt more without you."

She could tell he wasn't accusing her. It was a simple, heartbreaking fact. Sookie steeled herself and turned in his arms. Her resolve took a hit when she looked up into his eyes and found Old Eric staring back at her. Ancient and wise and flinty, his expression was nothing like what she'd seen in the lover she knew. It fucking terrified her. She'd meant everything to Sweet Eric. What did she mean to _this_ vampire?

She couldn't bear to ask. Instead, she changed the subject. "What will happen to you and Bill now? You've killed two humans tonight. And two sheriffs."

Eric blinked. "We've glamored the witnesses. We'll deal with the AVL if and when they decide to act against us."

She closed her eyes, hating the possibility. "You didn't have to kill them," she pointed out. "Especially Marnie's sidekick. Alone, he wasn't a threat."

Eric's arms closed more tightly around her, so much so that she almost had trouble breathing. "He deserved as much, if not more, than the witch."

"You tore his heart out. What did he do to deserve that except try to protect her?"

"He was the human who told Tara to shoot you when you came for me. He was a dead man walking from that moment. And he was complicit in your torture. No one hurts you and walks away, Sookie. I would have killed them all, had you not insisted they be spared."

When she opened her eyes, they were so wide and luminous that Eric almost swore another debilitating spell was cursing him. She was so soft and shy in his arms, so unconsciously sweet. It took everything he had to remember that she had put this distance between them, wedging another vampire's name into the sacred space they'd created together. It was the only thing keeping his lips from skipping across her inviting skin.

She wet her lip in uncertainty, and his willpower took a beating at her infuriatingly sexy pout. When she spoke, her question was small. "Why didn't you come to me?"

"I have," he answered, thinking she meant now.

She shook her head, insecurity pooling in those dark eyes. "No. You came through the door, and then you stopped. You stayed as far away from me as possible while being in the same room." She lowered her head between them. Eric silently cursed how her vulnerable expression made him want to soothe and coo and demean himself even more than he already had.

"I'm here now."

"I know," she shrugged. "But... I wanted you then, too."

He was quiet again. Sookie sensed a small ribbon of hope filter through him, but it dimmed almost as soon as it rose. "Did you want Bill as well?"

"Oh Eric," she murmured defeatedly. She definitely shouldn't have said anything the other night.

A rare look of hurt flashed across his features before he promptly buried it. "Well? Did you?"

Not knowing how else to reassure him, Sookie burrowed her head into his chest, her arm making a tentative hook around his ribcage. "Please don't be mad at me for being honest. I don't want to hide things from you."

"Hide that you're in love with another."

"I am _not_ in love with another!" she cried into his chest, exasperated. "What do you want from me, Eric? I will always love Bill, okay? He was my first! But that doesn't mean that I want be with him again! You think I'd let him crawl into my bed and hold me like this? No!" Her little fist thumped his chest with almost childlike anger. "Won't you always love Godric? And Pam? No matter what happens?"

"That's entirely different."

"So you never slept with either of them?"

"We are vampires," he justified darkly. "It's in our nature to fuck."

"So that's a yes, then," she fumed. "You've fucked people that you loved. And still love. Should I throw you out of here in a jealous rage? Or should I allow you your past and your feelings?"

Sookie cursed as two tears betrayed her command to stay back and slipped down her cheek. She sniffed, trying like hell to stifle them. God, she hated crying. It was the second time that night that she'd cried for this man.

"I'm so mad at you," she whimpered. "You avoid me and mock me, and then what? Agree to die right in front of me because some bitch says she'll let me go if you kill yourself? What the hell? Are you trying to rip me apart?"

Hot, angry tears exploded down her face and she turned her head into the mattress, ashamed. Eric's jaw tightened at her admission. He was mad at her too, but it comforted him to know that his sacrifices mattered to her. The truth was that he'd stayed away because he'd felt sucker punched. First by the reality that Sookie was now his lover and again when she'd confessed to still loving Bill. It was just too much. His centuries of deft compartmentalizing deserted him. He needed space. He simply couldn't think when he was near her.

And yet.

After spending only two nights in her bed, a single night away had nearly destroyed him. He _had_ to come back. Her anger and her tears and her love for another man were better than not holding her at all.

The smell of saltwater. Sookie's tears ripped his bruised heart in half. He couldn't stand it. He locked his forearms around her back and pulled her tight against him. He buried his nose in her hair, inhaling her, trying to fill himself with sunshine instead of sadness. Gently, he started rocking her.

Sookie snuffled against him, hiding under his chin like a child. Eric felt her fists, tight and warm, bunched into the front of his shirt. He smiled faintly.

"You almost died," she whispered.

"So did you."

"I didn't offer to, Eric. You did."

"Does that upset you?"

"You _know_ it does! I _love_ you! How am I supposed to live with myself if you die because of me?" She began crying in earnest. Hot wetness seeped onto his chest.

"Don't," he muttered. "Sookie, please don't cry."

"What am I supposed to do? Let you blame me and care for me and-,"

"_Love_ you," he corrected.

Sookie sniffed harder and kissed the wet fabric under her lips. "Love me," she echoed. "And keep away from me and _not_ go crazy?"

Her fingers were unconsciously pulling at his shirt, moving it higher up his chest and leaving his abdomen bare. Eric grit his teeth and tried to ignore it. "I don't wish to keep away."

She peeked at him through tear-soaked lashes. "You say you haven't changed, but Other Eric would have run straight to me."

Goddammit, she never played fair. Eric's own fingers played on the strip of skin between her top and her panties. She pressed harder into him, welcoming his exploration. "He is a braver vampire than I."

Eric's fingers on her bare hips made Sookie's own hands itch for contact. They slid own his chest, finding his exposed belly and splaying wide over his rigid muscles. "I'm scared," she admitted in a whisper. "God, I'm so scared, Eric. What if we don't fit together anymore? What if I fixed you...but broke _us_?"

He couldn't stand it anymore. He let his hands snake up her bare back, stroking pointedly along her shoulder blades, letting his thumbs tease along her sides just where her breasts began to swell. The cool caress made her inhale sharply and squirm in his grip. He leaned down, rubbing his lips against her trembling mouth. "I will _not_," he spoke angrily, "let you walk away without finding out. _My_ other Sookie was braver than that. She fed me and fucked me and fought by my side. She tried to rescue me from the coven and she risked herself to try and stop me." He drilled her with a withering stare as he finally dared to cup her bare breasts. "Are you going to hide behind Bill and your dead relationship and turn away from a new, uncertain future with me?"

Sookie's eyes fluttered. Her hands curled into his shirt from the inside and tugged hard as she shuddered and arched into his hands. "No."

The massage intensified and she gasped. "Speak up, little coward. What?"

She yanked at his shirt in earnest while fingering his fly. "No," she repeated louder. "No, I won't hide."

A loud rip and suddenly her camisole was gone. Sookie barely noticed. She was pulling Eric's shirt over his head, kissing the pale skin she exposed as both hands went to work on his zipper. Eric arched his hips toward her, giving her better access and watching with satisfaction as she clawed at his clothes. "You are mine," he repeated.

She lowered his jeans from his hips, secretly loving that he always went commando. He sprang out from the confines, huge and hard and seeking. Sookie gripped him and squeezed. Other Eric might have been a sweetheart, but he had liked it rough. This Eric was no different. She looked up as he hissed at her, his open mouth showing his dropped fangs. "We are together," she rephrased.

She worked him in a slow, full pump. His hips matched her rhythm, colliding with her fingers. He reached down and rid himself of his pants completely before turning on her at a startling speed. His fingers were in her panties, slipping into her folds and petting them with expert care. Sookie moaned softly. He knew exactly how to touch her.

"Tell me," he ordered softly, rolling her soft wetness on his fingers and making her jerk and twitch as she tried valiantly to keep his handjob steady. "Am I still your miracle?"

"Yes," she answered breathlessly, battling between clamping her thighs together to quell his teasing and opening them wide to allow anything he wanted.

"And are you still my Fairy Sookie? My ridiculously perfect match?"

"Oh, God," she whimpered, trying to think beyond the orgasm that was threatening her. Her hands tightened over his cock, as if letting go would unhinge her and send her flying off the bed. "Yes," she answered again. "I hope so."

Another softer, smaller rip. Her panties joined her camisole. She and Eric moved together, creating and taking pleasure in equal force.

"My fairy always kissed me when she touched me like this."

Sookie swept forward, pressing her lips into his. Given their actions, her kiss was shy. Her mouth moved gently over his, making the softest contact with his fangs as he opened his mouth to her. They knew each other so intimately, and yet, in many ways, this was their first kiss. For once, both were willing. Both were fully aware. Both were in love.

Over the devilish work of her hands, Sookie kissed him like an angel. Eric closed his eyes, his fingers hesitating before slipping into the hot, wet heaven that awaited them. She whimpered in his mouth. It was an endearing sound. Slowly, he moved them in time with her pumping fists.

"Fuck, I missed you," he rasped against her lips. "Yesterday. Tonight when I couldn't get to you. I missed you so fucking much it almost drove me mad."

With his free hand, he swept down the side of her body and up again, reveling in her golden skin, openly reaffirming her health. "You're sure you're unhurt? The fire? The bullet wound?"

She nodded vigorously against his lips. "I'm okay," she assured him, removing one hand from his groin to curl around his throat and pull him harder against her mouth. "I missed you, too. I hate this bed without you."

He growled appreciatively and took her into another deep kiss. They were exactly as he remembered from his amnesiac nights. Soft and hungry and the sweetest things he'd ever eaten. His brain was going pleasantly fuzzy when she slipped her leg high over his hip and put her lips to his ear.

"Can I feed you?" she asked in a whisper. "Please? I would have done it first thing after the sun went down tonight, but..." she swallowed and kissed his cheek, "I hate that you endured silver without me. You could have come here. I could have read to you or something to distract you."

Eric snarled aggressively, grabbing her wrist and pulling her pumping hand away from him. Her thoughtfulness made him feel soft and violent all at the same time. She was finally showering him with the carnal, yet innocent affection that he'd coveted for so long, and he was finally able to fully comprehend her offering. It melted him. It riled him.

"So sweet," he crooned, working his fingers deftly in her tight, wet core and glorying in her writhing gasps. "You _will_ feed me. You'll give me your blood and your body every night," he promised, making Sookie's eyes roll in anticipation. "And...you'll lie beside me during the day, kissing and reading to me until I die."

Her leg locked tighter around his hip, grinding their bodies, leaving no room for their hands. Eric positioned himself, sawing his erection teasingly against her wet outer folds.

"Hot, wet little fairy princess," he praised roughly.

Sookie smiled and bit her lip with impatience. "Big, bad vampire sheriff."

Amusement bubbled up inside him, quickly drown out by lust. "Are you brave enough to love me, Sookie? The real me?"

Challenge sparked hotly in her eyes. Refusing to blink, she reached between them and gently drew him two inches inside her. Instinct took him hard and he gripped her hips and buried himself to the hilt immediately, grunting loudly as vampire-friendly sunshine enveloped him.

Sookie gasped, gripping his biceps, sputtering his name as her pussy stretched wide to accommodate him. Eric snarled in pleasure, flipping them in a flash. Suddenly they were sitting upright on the bed, Eric sitting back on his heels with Sookie wrapped around his hips and sitting on his lap. Eric wondered briefly if he was still a zombie slave, because he wrapped this woman up tightly in his arms and began stroking inside her as if compelled by a force stronger than himself.

Sookie's arms locked around his neck, holding on for dear life as she was taken by a man she once swore she'd hate until the day she died.

Yet strangely, this wasn't that man.

Sweet Eric stared back at her. Wide-eyed and awestruck, he moved with her, brushing his lips against hers, wordlessly asking if she'd please-fucking-Christ-please kiss him again. He needed her to initiate it. His bruised pride begged her to meet him halfway.

In her mind's eye, she saw him kneeling again, a bullet's wrath away from meeting the true death.

She made her core muscles clench him viciously while she cupped his cheeks and kissed him with desperate, unchecked lust.

"My Eric," she whispered into his mouth. "Beautiful, miracle Eric."

He groaned as his cock was squeezed without mercy. He bucked up harder, clasping her hips tightly in his hands and rowing her forward and back. "Yes," he agreed wholeheartedly. "Yours. Make me yours, Sookie."

His eyes were killing her. Huge and blue and openly crazy for her. She yanked him closer, kissing squarely between them before placing long, delicate kisses on each lid, just so he'd have to close them and save her from their intensity. Eric dipped his chin, placidly accepting her invisible brands. His hands tightened on her hips and suddenly Sookie shrieked as she found herself pinned beneath Eric on the mattress, his cool weight keeping her still as he continued to piston hard and sure between her thighs. He wasn't the only one to be branded tonight.

"I was so sure," he mused, lowering until he'd locked her between his elbows, his forearms under her shoulders, his hands in her hair. "_So_ sure... my memory of making love to you was a lie. You couldn't feel this good, Sookie. No one could."

It was true. Eric had been able to think of little else once his memory had been restored. Sookie's naked body had burned itself in his brain. He'd been unable to think around it. How she moved, how she sounded, how she touched him in ways that had made him lose his mind all over again. It couldn't be possible that he remembered accurately. No woman could harbor such magic. Even if one could, Sookie Stackhouse would never have bestowed it on _him_. She could barely bring herself to look at him, never mind fuck him stupid.

Sookie began to shake violently. Her approaching orgasm was going to rattle the windows three parishes over, she was certain of it. She reached up to trace the dimple in his chin, unsure of his meaning. "Are you disappointed?"

His eyes went even rounder with disbelief, his jaw clenching in anger before softening again. She couldn't seriously mean that. Couldn't she feel how completely she owned him? To Eric, it was so damn obvious it was embarrassing. "No, lover," he crooned. "I'm undone."

With that, Sookie arched violently upwards, her muscles going rigid, her body leaping off the precipice. "_Eric_!"

Eric watched in fascination as he experienced a climaxing fairy in his arms. Her arms and legs held him prisoner, her voice turning into pure, kittenish sex as she cried out to him. Internal light exploded around his cock, a million sunbursts alighting over every inch. He seized against her and roared, shooting hard and spilling deep within her. "Fuck! _Sookie_!"

Instinct snatched him up and sent him plummeting into her throat. His fangs sank into her irresistible skin, her blood leaping into his mouth and cuddling into his body like it never wanted another.

Sookie screamed, her orgasm increasing tenfold. It was unprecedented. Never before had her climax kaleidoscoped into unbearable ecstasy because of a vampire bite. Her arms and legs turned steely around Eric, refusing to let him go as her body experienced its first supernatural crest.

"Oh _God_!" she sobbed, burrowing into the side of his head, pressing frenzied kisses into his hair. Eric's hands fisted in her hair, just as bent on keeping her plastered against him. His lips softened around the harshness of puncturing bite, kissing bloodily as he fed. Everything bright and lovely filled him up, including the very real, very deep love that Sookie carried for him. He felt her cupping it like a candle flame deep in her heart, determined to keep it strong and healthy, no matter what bullshit the world might throw at it. He growled deep in his throat, purring to her, trying to communicate how fucking deliriously happy that made him.

Slowly, Sookie began to return to earth. Her panting turning to breathy gasps. Her shakes turned to small tremors. Her hands lost their possessive grip, allowing her fingers to comb into his hair and pet him tenderly. Eric, still buried and hard despite his climax, continued to sip from her, basking in her taste and her favor.

Sookie hummed throatily. "Don't go overboard," she whispered hoarsely.

Carefully, Eric disengaged and began to lick in lazy, greedy laps. "You make it difficult," he replied between swipes.

Sookie let her hands slip lower, exploring the familiar ridges of his wide shoulders and down to his trim waist, happily keeping busy while waiting for him to finish. "You're so touchable," she remarked, a bashful smile blooming against the hollow of his throat.

He brought his finger up to prick on his fang, applying his blood to his bite, healing his mate. "Only for Sookie," he said, lifting up so that he could look at her properly.

Her smile turned brighter at his words. She settled deeper beneath him, tugging at him, wordlessly asking for more of his weight. He tsked her, not wanting to crush her, and began to lift up so that he could lie next to her.

"No," she whimpered cutely, gripping him tighter.

He paused and looked down at her. "I should move."

"No," she repeated, shaking her head. "Can I just... wear you for a little while?"

Eric chuckled, flashing his human teeth before settling back down. "Wear me," he echoed. "If you like."

"I do like," she said, shifting again, getting more comfortable.

Eric followed her lead, lowering until he burrowed his face into the pillow next to her. Her hair tickled his nose and infused him with delicious contentment. He sighed. Sookie grinned at the very human sound.

"Hey, Eric?"

"Hm?"

"Don't you ever offer to die for me again. You hear me?"

"Sorry, lover. No deal."

She kneed him reprovingly between his thighs, grunting prettily. "I mean it. You do that again and I'll stake you myself."

"Already threatening me with weapons. I like you with a vindictive streak."

She smacked the back of his head gently. "Just shut up and promise."

He chuckled deep and held her close. Already, he knew this relationship would always be interesting. "I said never. Now _you_ shut up." He stole her kiss and made her.


End file.
